Many traditional Chinese children’s games have the same basic structures as children’s games all over the world. Tag, blind man’s bluff, matching games, Red Rover: all have their traditional Chinese equivalents, so similar in their basic elements that a child from any culture can quickly fit right in. In most cases, all that is different is the name of the game and the exact story and rhymes. So many games exist, this cannot be an exhaustive list!

A favourite Chinese variant of Duck Duck Goose is “Caught You!” Here, a group of twenty or thirty children sit around in a large circle, while another child sits just outside the circle, blindfolded. A ball is rapidly passed around the circle. When the blindfolded child cries “Stop!” whoever happens to have the ball has to stand up and sing a song or tell a short story, the sillier the better. The child on the outside changes place with someone in the circle about every five minutes or so.

Another circle game is the traditional Chinese version of “Telephone”. A short message is whispered to one child, who whispers it to the person beside them (only once!). When the message has travelled all around the circle, the child at the end tells what they heard out loud. Usually the original message has been lost long ago.

“The Eagle and the Chicks” is a much more active game of tag. One child is the Eagle, whose goal is to tag the chicks. One child is the Mother Hen, who is immune to being tagged and who tries to protect the chicks. All the other children are chicks. The object of the game is for the Eagle to get around the Mother Hen and tag a chick, who will become the Eagle in the next game.

Similar to some versions of marbles or bocce, “Knocking the Stick” is played among a small group of children. Two lines are drawn on the ground, roughly two metres apart. A stick is placed on the far line. The object of the game is to move the stick over the line by throwing another stick at it.

A traditional Chinese one-person toy has come to be known as the Chinese yo-yo. The child balances a small weight on a string attached to two sticks. The object is to keep the weight constantly moving. More skilled players can transfer the weight from one person’s sticks to another’s, or even do tricks with it.

Mah-jong is an ancient three-dimensional game of tiered tiles, where the object is to successfully remove all the tiles by pairing them. Each mah-jong pattern is numbered, and dedicated mah-jong players keep track of which patterns they have successfully solved. Among adults, this is also a popular gambling game.

Finally, the classic game of Go is so deceptively simple that most Chinese first learn it in childhood; but the strategies of the game are a lifetime pursuit. One player has the white “stones” and the other plays black. On a grid board which can vary in size, the players take turns to lay stones at grid intersections. The object of the game is to gain territory by completely surrounding it with your own stones. It is much more difficult than it sounds!